1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal acquiring apparatus, a database, a database system, a signal presenting system, and a signal acquiring, storing, and presenting system that are applied for storing audiovisual information and bio-information regarding an event experienced by an individual.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increasing amount of digital information, such as digital image information, owned by individuals, services for storing the digital information of each individual are becoming commercially practical. There have been proposed a service that allows an individual to easily prepare his or her own history, i.e., a personal history, (see the Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-66049) rather than simply storing data. According to the system for creating a personal history described in the literature, a user""s terminal and a manager or server computer are connected through the intermediary of the Internet, and the manager is provided with a group of databases. The group of databases includes a user database for user management, a personal event database, a historical event database, an event selection database, and a chronological database. A user starts up a WWW browser at his or her terminal, and uses the above-mentioned database information to effect processing to prepare a chronology as his or her personal history. The provision of the historical event database enables the user to select history events that he or she wishes to relate to his or her personal events, thus contributing to easier preparation of the personal history.
According to the literature mentioned above, however, the information regarding personal events has been character-oriented and the associated image and audio information has not been the information regarding users"" own experiences of seeing or hearing. Hence, the information regarding personal events has no significant difference from that presented by an electronic album except that it is composed as a chronology. In addition, the information has been inadequate in reproducing the experiences of a user later. There has been another disadvantage in that the manager is equipped with the databases, so that cost, including the cost for creating and managing databases, is required.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a signal acquiring apparatus, a database, a database system, a signal presenting system, and a system for acquiring, storing, and presenting signals that make it possible to store the audiovisual information regarding an audiovisual experience that a user has had, and the bio-information regarding the user, to reproduce the user""s experiences later, and to accomplish a good stock of information by utilizing publicly available databases.
To this end, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal acquiring apparatus equipped with a plurality of sensors attached to a person, detecting devices for generating detection signals from the plurality of sensors, a selecting device for automatically selecting detection signals containing effective information from among the plurality of detection signals, and a storing device for storing the selected detection signals.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a database equipped with a device for receiving the detection signals that are generated from each of the plurality of sensors attached to a user and stored in a storing device, a device of database for each person in which received detection signals are stored for each user, a communication device that is connected to an external database to access information in another database associated with the stored detection signals, and a device for acquiring associated information from another database via the communication device.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a database system equipped with a signal acquiring apparatus that includes a plurality of sensors attached to a person, a detecting device for generating detection signals from the plurality of sensors, a selecting device for automatically selecting detection signals containing effective information from among the plurality of detection signals, and a storing device for storing the selected detection signals, and a database connected to the signal acquiring apparatus via a communication device, wherein the database includes a device for receiving detection signals from the signal acquiring apparatus and a device for database for each person in which received detection signals are stored for each user.
Accordingly to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal presenting system that includes a database equipped with a device for receiving detection signals that are generated by each of a plurality of sensors attached to a user and stored at a storing device, and a device of database for each person in which received detection signals are stored for each user, and a signal presenting apparatus connected to the database via a communication device, wherein the signal presenting apparatus includes a device for receiving detection signals from the database via the communication device and a device for reproducing an environment on the basis of the detection signals.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal acquiring, storing, and presenting system that includes a signal acquiring apparatus that has a plurality of sensors attached to a person, a detecting device for generating detection signals from the plurality of sensors, a selecting device for automatically selecting detection signals containing effective information from among the plurality of detection signals, and a storing device for storing the selected detection signals, a database including a device that is connected to the signal acquiring apparatus via a first communication device to receive detection signals from the signal acquiring apparatus and a device of database for each person in which the received detection signals are stored for each user, and a signal presenting apparatus including a device that is connected to the database via a second communication device to receive detection signals from the database, and a device for reproducing an environment on the basis of the detection signals.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signal acquiring, storing, and presenting system including a first manager that manufactures and/or markets a signal acquiring apparatus having a plurality of sensors attached to a person, a detecting device for generating detection signals from the plurality of sensors, a selecting device for automatically selecting detection signals containing effective information from among the plurality of detection signals, and a storing device for storing the selected detection signals, a second manager that manages a database including a device that is connected to the signal acquiring apparatus via a first communication device to receive detection signals from the signal acquiring apparatus and a device of database for each person in which the received detection signals are stored for each user, and a third manager that manages a signal presenting apparatus including a device that is connected to the database via a second communication device to receive detection signals from the database, and a device for reproducing an environment on the basis of the detection signals.
According to the present invention, the signal acquiring apparatus makes it possible to acquire audiovisual signals and bio-signals obtained from user""s actual experiences, to selectively store impressive signals among the aforementioned signals, and to store such signals also in a database. Furthermore, since audiovisual signals and bio-signals are stored in a database, reproduction including sensory effect can be accomplished during a re-experience. The signal presenting apparatus permits a re-experience with highly realistic sensations to be achieved. Moreover, according to the present invention, associated information can be acquired from an external database in addition to the data acquired by an individual so as to supplement the contents of a database, thus achieving a high-quality database having a good stock of information.